


The Mission

by MelyndaR



Category: Courageous (2011)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-01-09
Packaged: 2018-03-06 21:55:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 13,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3149663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At fifteen, Dylan Mitchell has been saved, called to preach, and led to start a church/mission.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AU-ish, although I tried to line it up with events in the movie or book. Sorry if the writing seems not up to my usual standards somehow. It kinda feels like it to me for some reason. And I know that it's an unusual plot, but please, if you review, no flames. I hope that you enjoy this story! Thanks, guys (and girls)!

Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. ~ 1 Timothy 4:12 (KJV)

* * *

When I look back now at my fifteenth year, I can see that my life did not really begin until my little sister's life had ended. Most days, I think that maybe Emily's death was necessary for the events that took place. Some days I think maybe not. As it is, she died, and, as well as one ever can after four years, from what I've seen, I have moved on.

But even that wasn't a possibility until the day that Dad suggested we begin memorizing Bible verses together.

I was in a good mood that afternoon because the two of us had just come back from a run. When he asked me to come into his office, saying that he wanted to show me something, I went without a second thought. He presented me with a list of Scripture passages and the idea for memorizing them.

When he pointed out John 3:3 on the list, I commented that while I had always heard the verse, I had never really understood it. And so we talked for an hour while he explained the Gospel story to me. And then and there in that room of my home, my father and I got down on our knees in prayer and I accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour.

It was an hour that changed my life forever.

* * *

The second event, also second in importance, came a couple of months later.

At the young age of fifteen, I began to feel the Lord calling me to preach.

Very unusual at that age, I know - believe me, I used that excuse a lot in my struggle with it - but it was what it was.

Although I couldn't bring myself to discuss it with my parents, I began to share my struggle with this conviction with my pastor, Jonathan Rodgers.

The more I talked with him, studied the Bible, and prayed, the more that I became convinced that this was God's calling for me. And the more I fought against it.

I was a very introverted guy. I didn't have a lot of friends, I wasn't always very sociable, and, most difficult of all to get over, I hated talking in front of crowds. Surely God couldn't use me as a preacher!

But He not only could, He did. And this is how.

* * *

_Present day, spring, Sunday morning_

Dylan Mitchell slowed his run to a clipped jog as he made his way through Albany, getting his run in at dawn, before church. The past weekend he had been much more at peace since surrendering to the ministry at some point late Friday night.

The one thing that still harped on his conscience, though, was that he had yet to tell his parents anything whatsoever about this turning point in his life. He planned to try and pull Pastor Rodgers aside and tell him about his decision at church later today though. And maybe talk to him about something else.

Ever since he had started feeling the Lord pulling him towards the ministry, he had began to notice the young adults, teenagers, and children in Albany, in his school. He had begun to feel a calling towards them especially, to be a witness to his peers. To make a place, a mission, really, for them.

He felt that this was his special mission from God, and he had accepted it. And he thought that maybe Pastor Rodgers could help him find a place to start his mission.

* * *

_Later that evening_

"Pastor?" Dylan sidled up to Pastor Rodgers when he noticed that the man was no longer occupied with one of his church members.

"Dylan," Pastor Rodgers shook his hand. "How are you?"

"Better, actually. Since Friday night."

Pastor Rodgers raised his eyebrows in curiosity. "Friday night?"

Dylan glanced self-consciously around to see who was watching. "Yeah."

The pastor noted his discomfort and tilted his head towards the exit from the auditorium. "Let's go talk somewhere else."

Dylan nodded and the two made their way out of the sanctuary.

Once they were alone, walking side by side down a quiet hallway, Pastor Rodgers inquired, "Now, do you want to tell me what happened Friday night?"

"I gave up." Dylan answered simply. "I quit arguing with God and He won. I surrendered to the ministry."

"I knew you would." Pastor Rodgers admitted with a thoughtful smile. "Now I want to show you something." He turned a corner and led Dylan down a dark corridor that Dylan had never before noticed. "Did you know that this church has a basement?"

"No." Dylan replied in confusion.

The pastor nodded and opened the door at the end of the hallway. "The church is essentially two levels, but the below-ground level has never been finished. It's just roughed in. Cool during the winter and hot in summer, so nobody uses it. It's been forgotten, really. But if you want to use any of this space for anything, feel free. Maybe just run it by me first."

Dylan froze, thoughts flying to the mission he wanted to have, and asked in amazement, "Are you serious?"

"Yes. God called you to preach, and me to give this space to you. If you want it for anything."

"Yes." Dylan said instantly. "Yes! Thank you, Lord!"

"I take it that you have a plan for this place?" Pastor Rodgers asked with a smile.

Dylan nodded. "Something like that. I want to start a mission for the young people around here."

The older man raised his eyebrows. "That's a lofty goal."

"I know, Pastor Rodgers, but-"

"Call me Jon."

Dylan nodded. "-Jon, but it's what I'm being called to do. And that you're just handing all of this space over to me, that's the sign that I needed."

Jon nodded. "I guess that I can understand that. But I really should get back upstairs now."

"Sure. Do you mind if I stay down here and look around for a little bit longer?"

"Nah, go ahead. And, hey, the outdoor entrance to this basement is always left unlocked if you want to get in during the week. But the door at the stairwell is generally kept locked, so you wouldn't be able to get into the upper level."

"Okay. Thanks."

Jon headed back up the stairs and Dylan started wandering around, awed at what God had just put in his lap. Only a work of the Lord could have made a sane man like Jonathan Rodgers hand this amount of space over to a fifteen year old boy.

But Dylan got the feeling that even this great miracle was only going to be the beginning.

All of the plumbing and electricity worked, even if it was a little worn down from not being used. But that was nothing that couldn't easily be fixed. The only thing that was unfinished was the walls. Some hadn't had drywall applied, so insulation was clearly seen, others had drywall, but no paint or wallpaper. The floors were all only concrete. But to Dylan, no place had ever been more beautiful.

He smiled as he went through the place, cataloging what every room was or could become. Two bathrooms, a kitchenette, a room that was big enough to work as a small sanctuary, and a half a dozen rooms that could be either offices or classrooms. It was everything that he had wanted, and so much more than he had even dared to dream about.

Even as the thought crossed his mind, two Scripture verses were on it's heels. Philippians 4:19 -  _But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus._ \- and Ephesians 3:20 -  _Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us._

A few minutes more of exploring, and Dylan decided that he had better make his way back upstairs before his parents started looking for him. So he hurried up the stairs and opened the door at the top of the stairwell. And crashed straight into Tyler Fuller and Jade Hayes.


	2. Chapter 2

"Sorry." he gasped.

"It's fine." Jade said.

Tyler added, "We've been looking for you. Your parents are wondering where you are."

Dylan nodded and turned to go back to the auditorium, stopping when Tyler asked, "What were you doing down there?"

"Nothing." The lie slipped far too easily off of Dylan's tongue and he couldn't help but flinch.

"I didn't even know that this place had a basement." Jade said.

"Pastor Rodgers said that it's been forgotten." Dylan replied.

Jade asked with raised eyebrows, "He showed it to you?"

"Yeah."

"What for?"

Dylan took a deep breath, deciding to tell the truth. "I want to use it as a mission of sorts for kids and young adults."

"You mean like a church? Underneath another church?" Jade asked.

He nodded.

"Wait a sec." Tyler demanded. "You're going to run it?"

Dylan answered slowly, "Yeah."

"You're going to run - as in pastor - a church?" Tyler asked.

Dylan nodded. "But it's just a mission, not a church. I'm not, like, ordained or anything."

"So..." Jade asked slowly, "You've been called to preach?"

"Yep. Just don't tell my parents; they don't know anything about any of it."

"Wow." Tyler said.

"Can we see your mission?" Jade asked curiously.

Dylan shrugged. "Yeah, sure, but there's nothing to see, really, not yet. It needs fixed up a little."

"We could help you with that." she offered. "Or at least I would if I could."

"Me too." Tyler volunteered.

"Really? Thanks, guys. Come on, let me show you what we've got to work with then. You can go on down, but first I need to check in with my parents."

They parted ways and Dylan found his parents, asking Adam, "Can I go finish my conversation with Jade and Tyler?"

"Yeah, sure. Just be back up in a quarter of an hour."

Dylan nodded. "Yes, sir."

Then he darted back out of the auditorium and into the basement.

"This place is kind of cool." Tyler said when he saw Dylan. "It won't need that much work, I don't think."

"Maybe you could talk to Javier about helping out." Jade suggested.

Dylan shook his head. "I don't want to get any more adults involved yet."

Jade frowned at him, but didn't say anything. Dylan was grateful; after all, he already knew that the secretiveness was wrong.

"So, what do you want to be what down here?" Tyler asked.

Dylan pointed to the biggest room off of the hallway. "That's going to be the sanctuary." He started down the hallway with the other two trailing behind him. "There's two bathrooms beside that, and the kitchenette is across the hall. The others are just classrooms, I guess."

"One of them will need to be your office, if you're going to be in charge of this place." Tyler pointed out.

"I'm not 'in charge of this place,' God is." Dylan corrected.

"Well, you'll still need an office." Jade said.

Dylan shrugged. "We can figure that out later, I guess. Just having it is enough for today."

"What is 'it's' name?" Jade queried.

"It's name?" Dylan repeated.

"Of course."

"Yeah," Tyler added. "Every church has a name."

Dylan shrugged again. "Something 'Baptist Mission,' I guess."

"Another something for another day?" Jade guessed.

"Yeah." Dylan smiled, realizing that this place, his adventure, had just become Tyler and Jade's adventure as well.

"Are you sure that we can do this?" Tyler asked.

"I think that it's a good idea." Jade said.

"And besides," Dylan added, grin only widening. "' _I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me._ '"

Tyler smirked. "You really are a preacher, aren't you?"

Dylan nodded, looking around at his surroundings. "I feel like it."

"So," Jade said. "We should probably get back upstairs. Do you want to meet down here Wednesday after church and talk about it some more?"

The boys agreed.

Jade grinned at them. "It's a date."

* * *

Monday evening wasn't really an enjoyable part of the week for Dylan, because that was the day that his fellow student and English tutor, Hannah Carson, came over to help him out with his homework. He didn't enjoy the lessons, but he had to admit that her tutoring had helped him get his grades up.

Hannah was a nice enough girl, but the rumor around school was that she had trouble at home; her father was an alcoholic. But with her easy smile, generally extroverted personality, and put-together looks, you would never know it. Not that Dylan should have been noticing her looks - though with jet black hair, big brown eyes, and a slim frame, she was very pretty. She was an unbeliever, and that made her not a possibility for Dylan. She already had a boyfriend anyway. And her twin brother, Leon, was a force to be reckoned with, something that Dylan had summed up to having to protect his mother and sister from their father.

It was a sad situation, and Dylan vaguely wondered, while Hannah was packing up her things after their tutoring session, if there was anything that he could do to help her.

"So, Hannah, how have you been?" he asked conversationally.

She looked up from stuffing her backpack with papers, before averting her eyes. "Fine."

Lying. "Is it anything that I could help you with?" he asked.

Hannah laughed dryly. "No, not hardly."

"I know someone who can help you."

She looked up at him with panic in her eyes. "How? Can you tell already?"

"What?" he asked in confusion.

Seeing that he didn't know about whatever it was that she was talking about, she calmed down, saying. "Nothing." And then it seemed to dawn on her what he had said. "Wait a second, if you don't know what I'm going through, then how can you know someone who can help me with it?"

"Because I know God."

Another dry laugh escaped her. "Believe me, God really doesn't want anything to do with me right now." she sighed. "And before long, you won't either."

"And how do you know that?"

She shook her head with a wry smile on her lips, by now standing in the open doorway of the Mitchells' house. "Just believe me. You'll figure it out soon enough."

Not giving him a chance to respond, she walked down the walkway and left the property.

Dylan sighed.  _Lord, whatever's going on in her life, help her. And the rest of her family. It seems like they really need You._


	3. Chapter 3

Dylan noticed on Tuesday morning that some of his fellow students were giving him odd looks.

He couldn't figure out why until one of his few close friends, Jeremy Rivers, came up to him in the hallway and asked, "Why have people started saying today that you're a preacher?"

The question made Dylan pause before he closed his locker door and answered, "Because I am. I guess. I've been called to preach anyway. And I sort of have a mission, only it's not open yet."

"What sort of mission?"

"A small church is what I mean when I say 'mission.'" Dylan exclaimed.

Jeremy whistled, looking like he didn't know whether to be impressed or laugh, although he was obviously still skeptical. "You have a church?"

"Sort of. I will once some friends and I get the place fixed up."

"Tell me when it's open. I may just have to come over and check out you and that 'mission.'"

Dylan nodded as Jeremy walked away. "I'll do that."

This was a conversation that Dylan repeated at least six more times throughout the remainder of the day. Leon and Hannah Carson had even asked him about it.

Walking home from school, Dylan was trying very hard not to be upset with Tyler and Jade. They were the only people he had told besides Pastor Rogers, and he trusted him to keep the information to himself until Dylan said it was okay to do differently. So Jade and/or Tyler had to have slipped up to someone.

Dylan grabbed his cellphone out of his pocket, intent on calling Tyler and giving him a piece of his mind. But he didn't, not yet. It wouldn't do any good to call someone when he was angry. Realizing this, he jammed his phone back into his pocket and burst into a run, letting the wind against his face carry away his anger.

As it turned out, he didn't call either one of them. Knowing that he needed the time to cool down, he decided to give it a day and talk to them on Wednesday night in the basement.

Wednesday morning, he was half dreading going to school. He didn't want to be the main story again. Problem was, he wasn't.

Hannah's boyfriend, Danny, was.

For reasons no one seemed to know, he had committed suicide sometime after school the day before.

Dylan hesitantly approached Leon during lunch, since Hannah hadn't come to school that day, and asked, "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

"No." Leon sighed. "Not unless you can bring him back to Hannah from the dead."

Dylan shook his head.

Leon and Dylan slid into a table as Leon continued, keeping his eyes on the tray in front of him, "I never really liked him, you know. I shouldn't say that about a dead guy, probably, but I didn't. Danny, he… didn't treat her like she deserved to be treated. He didn't hurt her or anything; he just… didn't treat her as well as she should be treated. But Hannah didn't see it. She loved him anyway. Too much, I guess."

"What?" Dylan asked.

"Huh?"

"What do you mean 'too much'?"

"Oh," Leon looked away. "It's nothing. Just forget that I said anything, okay?"

Dylan nodded uncomfortably. "Okay. And if there is ever anything that I can do, for any of you, just tell me, alright?"

Leon nodded before changing the subject, asking Dylan about the mission.

* * *

That night, Dylan slipped out of the sanctuary as soon as he could and headed down to the basement where he was joined a couple of minutes later by Jade and Tyler.

"So, where do we start?" Tyler asked.

"How about with who leaked to my school that I was a preacher?" Dylan asked.

Jade looked at him in confusion, stating, "I didn't tell anyone."

Dylan nodded at Jade and looked at Tyler. He had figured as much.

"I told a few of my friends." Tyler admitted. "But no one that goes to Westover High." And then the thought dawned on him, "A few of the people I told have siblings that go there though."

"Then that explains that." Dylan said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Are you upset?" Tyler asked, looking mostly confused and a little concerned.

Dylan sighed. "No. I just wasn't expecting it. But a few of the kids from school said that they'd come to the opening service. Mostly out of curiosity, I guess, but they still said that they'd be here." He stretched a smile across his face and aimed it at the worried twelve-year-old. "So I guess that it all worked out okay."

"Good." Tyler grinned.

"So what else do we need to work on?" Jade broke in and asked.

"A name needs to be a priority." Dylan admitted. "Everyone has asked what it is, and I've had to tell them that it doesn't have one."

"Same here." Tyler said. "So what about the usual stuff? You know 'grace', 'faith,' 'Bible' and all that?"

Dylan shook his head. "No. I want something different, something definitely not usual."

"Like what?" Jade asked.

Dylan shrugged. "I thought about something hymn-based, but I don't have any specific ideas."

"Then we think about it until we come up with something."

"But work on other things in the mean time." Tyler added.

"Of course." Jade answered. "So what else needs worked on?"

The list that Dylan had mentally racked up was a little daunting, but he knew that they could do it.  _All things through Christ_ , he reminded himself as he began to list what all lay before them.

* * *

Thursday morning brought yet another piece of news to Dylan through the school grapevine. Hannah was in the hospital, and Leon was nowhere to be found, so Dylan didn't know why. He didn't know anything except for that she was apparently sick, and he was worried for his friend.

As soon as he had left the school campus that evening, he called Hannah's cellphone. No answer.

He drummed his fingertips against his leg, sighing heavily. "C'mon, Hannah, what's going on with you?"

He put his phone back in his pocket, allowing his imagination some space to go to town. And that's when her earlier comment came back to him:  _Can you tell already?_ Was whatever was bothering her  _terminal_?

"God, I know that You know what's going on right now, even if I don't. And I know that You know what it is that Hannah and her family need. I bring them to You. Please, help them. And show me what I can do, if anything."

Dylan tried one more time to get a hold of her, and when he was sent straight to voicemail, he broke into a run again, letting a steady stream of prayers filter through his mind. It was calming.


	4. Chapter 4

Leon was back at school on Friday, but it wasn't until school was over and they were leaving the premises that Dylan was able to catch up to him.

"Hey," he greeted Hannah's twin.

Leon glanced at him out of the corner of his eye as they walked along the sidewalk. "Hey."

"So, uh… what's up with Hannah?"

"None of your business." Leon answered so quickly that Dylan knew it wasn't the first time that he'd given that answer today.

"She's not, like, sick, is she?"

Leon sighed, scuffed the toe of his tennis shoe against the cracked cement, seemingly coming to a decision. "If I tell you, you do not, under any circumstances, tell anyone without mine or Hannah's express permission. No one. Are we clear?"

Dylan nodded, brows creasing with concern at the other boy's nearly fierce tone. "Of course."

Leon sighed again, keeping his eyes on the ground as he told Dylan. "Hannah… she was carrying a baby."

"Pregnant?" Dylan repeated, letting that news sink in.

He hadn't seen that coming, not even with all of the scenarios that he had thought up since the day before. But it made sense. The panic in her eyes when she had asked,  _Can you tell already?_

"Danny's baby." Leon growled, obviously angry with their recently deceased peer. "That's why he killed himself. Hannah told him that she didn't want to kill the baby. He figured out that she wasn't going to change her mind and he couldn't handle it. So instead of the baby dying that day, Danny did."

The boys walked for a few minutes in silence, Dylan being stunned beyond words. "Wait a second," he said after a minute. "Hannah  _was_ carrying a baby?"

"Yeah. She got so upset when she found out about Danny, and was so upset for so long, I guess, that she couldn't physically handle it. She miscarried Wednesday night."

"Oh man," Dylan said softly. "I… I don't know what to say."

Leon shrugged, having yet to look up from the ground in front of him.

"How is she?"

Leon scoffed, every word he said as hard as stone now. "She just lost a baby. Her child  _died_ , Dylan. How do you think that she's doing?"

Dylan flinched. "How are you doing?" he asked after pausing for a second.

"Outside of wanting to strangle the life out of Danny, just fine."

"If it helps, he's already dead."

"Yeah, I know. That's the problem. If that stupid jerk hadn't committed suicide, Hannah wouldn't have miscarried! She would still be fine and my niece or nephew would still be alive! He killed that baby!"

That was a stretch, Dylan knew, but he also understood the need to have someone to blame. Danny was obviously the easiest target.

"I'm so sorry, Leon."

Leon looked at him out of the corner of his eye, eyes hard. "Aren't you supposed to ask if there's anything you can do, since you're a preacher and everything?"

"Maybe." Dylan answered with a shrug. "But I know that it doesn't seem like it right now, does it?"

Leon kicked at the sidewalk, lowering his eyes again.

"You know," Dylan continued thoughtfully, "There's a verse that says that it's actually better for those that were never born. I'm not sure where it's at, Ecclesiastes, I think."

" _Do not_ talk to me about God right now." Leon ordered sharply.

Dylan swallowed.  _Was I this angry when Emily died?_ "But it's right." He said hesitantly. "The younger one is when they die, the less they have to go through while on earth. And, considering that, doesn't it seem like it would be best to die like Hannah's baby? Before they know anything beside warmth and safety?"

Leon didn't answer at first, but Dylan could tell that he was thinking about what he'd said. "Only the good die young, huh?"

Recognizing the title of a song, Dylan allowed a grin to twitch at the corners of his mouth as he nodded. "Something like that, yeah."

For the first time in a while, Leon looked Dylan in the eye, asking, "Do you think, could you… come see Hannah? Maybe tell her what you just told me? I don't know if it'll help or not, but it's something. I know it's a lot to ask, but you kind of, I don't know,… you get it."

Dylan nodded. "Sure, I guess." He bit his lip. "I could try, anyway."

"Thanks, man." Leon said with a ghost of a smile.

Another minute of almost companionable silence passed between the two of them before Dylan asked hesitantly, "Do you mind if I… It's just, if you want someone who understands what Hannah's going through, my mom… would understand her feelings better than I would. Do you think that it would be okay if I tell my parents and see if my mom can come with me?"

Leon considered this as Dylan added, "They really do like Hannah, and I know that they'd be willing to do what they could to help you all out."

"Alright." Leon agreed.

Dylan allowed himself a little smile as the two boys stopped at the place where they parted ways to go to their own houses. "Alright."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

A final nod of his head and Leon started down his road.

"And, hey," Dylan added, "Just so you know, I'm praying for you and your family."

Leon smirked skeptically back at Dylan as he walked away.


	5. Chapter 5

Dylan drummed his fingers against the steering wheel of the car as he drove Victoria and himself home from the hospital after seeing Hannah.

"Thanks for letting me drive." He said just to fill up the silence between them.

Victoria tried to smile. "You're welcome. You only have a few more hours left to drive before you can try for your license, right?"

Dylan nodded. Silence reigned for a long minute before he added, "And thanks for coming, Mom. I know it was hard, so thanks a lot."

"I'm glad that I could help someone else."

"Do you think that we really helped, though?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah, I do." Victoria answered after a moment's thought. "Mrs. Carson thanked me for coming. I kind of think that she needed a mom to talk to, too, today."

"That's what you were doing in the hallway, then, when I was talking to Hannah and Leon in her room?"

Victoria nodded.

"Did I tell you that Hannah agreed to come to church once she gets out of the hospital?"

"That's only the third time that you have." Victoria said with a smile. After a minute in silence, she said, "You referencing all of those Scriptures kind of surprised me. I hadn't realized that you'd been getting into the Word that much more."

"Well, when Leon asked me to come talk to Hannah, I did a quick study before we left the house. But other than that, I downloaded an electronic Bible recording onto my iPod, and if I'm running alone, I listen to it then."

His mother smiled lovingly at him.

Catching her look out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at her, asking innocently, "What?"

"I'm just really proud of you, Dylan. You've matured a lot in the past few months, and I'm just really proud of you."

He grinned, but the joy was short-lived as the thought crossed his mind that he was still withholding the call to preach and the mission from her and his dad. And then and there he almost told her. But he didn't.

* * *

Dylan slid into bed later that night, mind whirling with the day's events.

"Thank you, Lord," he whispered into the darkness. "For softening Hannah towards you. And help Leon with his anger towards the situation. And help their parents as well." He continued praying, mentioning the other things and people on his prayer list

After his "amen" he burrowed down under his covers, which he quickly kicked off because of the humid Georgia heat. Flipping onto his back and lacing his hands together behind his head, Dylan stared out at the stars shining outside his window.

It was funny, he thought, how the death of the baby – whom Hannah had named Casey – had garnered two completely opposite reactions from Hannah and Leon. Second to Danny, Leon was obviously angry with God. However, at the hospital, Hannah had been more receptive then ever when Dylan and Victoria had presented her with the salvation story.

Maybe this would be what it took for her to bring herself to the Throne of Grace.

He could only hope, hope and pray.

* * *

Saturday morning, Dylan was up at a record breaking hour and biking two and a half miles across town. Armed with his backpack full of a couple of his father's tools, some of his mom's cleaning products, a can of WD-40, some roller paint brushes, and a tarp, he was on his way to the mission. His plan for today was to meet Tyler and Jade there and get all the appliances in working order if at all possible.

In opening the outside door to the basement, he found his first project in the painful protest that the door made. He shrugged off his back pack and took out the WD-40, spraying the door's hinges with it. Swinging the door back and forth a few times, he grinned at its silence and his small success.

Now it was time to really get started.

Nothing really needed repaired, per se; mostly it all just needed to be cleaned up and coerced into moving easily. As best as he could with what supplies he had brought with him, Dylan scrubbed away the rust and grime from sinks, toilets, and the kitchenette's stove. He smirked, wondering what his mother would think if she could see him now, since didn't bother to clean his own bedroom anywhere near as well as what he was doing here.

When he was finishing up with the last thing, dusting, a couple of hours later, he heard footsteps coming down the hallway from the direction of the outdoor entrance. He paused before hearing Tyler call out, "Dylan, are you here?"

"Kitchen!" Dylan called in reply.

Tyler appeared in the doorway, toting two cans of paint. "What's this," he joked, "Dylan Mitchell is cleaning?"

"I was. You got here just in time to see me put it all away. Not as much needed done as I thought was going to, so I'm pretty much through. It's about time you got here."

"Yeah. But, hey, Mom and I picked up Jade and then we went to Walmart and picked up some paint before she brought us here. So we have a good excuse."

"And four gallons of paint." Jade declared, carrying two into the room and setting them on the kitchen counter.

"Well," Dylan decided. "In that case you have great timing."

"Where do you want to start painting then?" Jade asked.

Dylan pointed across the hallway. "The sanctuary needs to be done first."

Jade nodded and picked the cans back up, heading in that direction with Tyler as Dylan dug the paint brushes and tarp out of his backpack.

Spreading the tarp out on the ground, Dylan asked Tyler, "How did you explain wanting to buy paint to your mom?"

"She didn't ask too many questions since Jade and I paid for it ourselves. We just said that we were buying it for church."

"I guess that's true." Dylan agreed before opening a can of paint and starting in on the wall with the white paint. He then changed the subject, asking, "Have either one of you thought of any names for this place?"

"You mentioned a hymn theme, right?" Jade asked.

"Yeah. But that's still as far as I've been able to get, unless we just want to pull a name out of the hymnbook."

"No." Jade said. "There's got to be a point to what we choose."

"Isaac Watts wrote a lot of hymns, didn't he?" Tyler asked.

"'Watts Baptist Mission.'" Dylan tried out the name. "That just sounds weird."

"Philip P. Bliss is in the hymnbook a lot." Tyler offered.

Again, Dylan shook his head. The two boys began to toss ideas back and forth while Jade worked in silence, running through ideas in her own mind.

At length, Jade, who had been crouching on the floor and painting the bottom of the wall, leaned back on her heels and suggested, "What about 'Newton-Crosby'?"

The boys blinked at her as if they had forgotten that she was there. "Newton-Crosby Baptist Mission?" Dylan asked, turning back to his work. "Where'd you get a name like that?"

"Well, John Newton, the guy who wrote 'Amazing Grace',was a seaman before he was saved. He worked on a slave ship and had a really immoral lifestyle before God got a hold of him. His life was so messed up that he was somebody that you wouldn't think God could use, but then Newton was saved and went on to write one of the best hymns ever.

"Fanny Crosby was blind. She was also someone that you would think couldn't make a big difference, especially since she was a blind  _woman_ in the 1800s. But she wrote over nine  _thousand_ hymns, a lot of which we still sing today.

"The point to the name being, I guess, that God can use whoever he wants, regardless of your past or physical impairment," Dylan smiled at her when she added, "or even your age. He can use me and He can use you, or whoever else He sends into this place in the future."

Dylan looked at Tyler for his opinion. Both of the boys were grinning.

Dylan nodded, "Well then, Newton-Crosby it is."


	6. Chapter 6

Sunday night during church, Dylan had gotten a phone call. Hours later as he got ready to crawl into bed, he had forgotten about the call and subsequent message that had been left on the phone. But the cell caught his eye as he turned to flip off his bedside lamp and he picked it up, checking the caller ID. It was from a number that he didn't have in his phone, but he decided to listen to it anyway.

"Hey, Dylan, it's Leon Carson. Listen, I have a total Hail Mary to ask to ask of you. My family knows pretty much no preachers, but Hannah wants to have a small ceremony sort of thing for Casey at the gravesite tomorrow after school with just our family and her best friend, so four or five people. Do you think that you could come and read the Bible or something? Hannah said that you're the only preacher type person that she's comfortable with letting do that, so… yeah.

"Call me back as soon as possible, thanks."

Dylan fell back against the wall, needing something to hold him up, because all of the muscles supporting him had just failed him. His first instinct was to go talk to his dad about it, but he realized almost instantly that that wasn't an option, and it was a realization that helped absolutely nothing about his frame of mind. Should he call Pastor Rogers? But he had promised Leon not to tell anyone without his or Hannah's permission. Dylan sighed. Then he realized the obvious option – pray.

So he did. He prayed like he had never prayed before in his life. And then, coming to a conclusion, he took his Bible from off of his nightstand and began to study.

"Alright, God," he breathed. "If you want me to go this route with my life, let's go."

* * *

Monday morning, Dylan told his mom that he had a really important get together with some of his friends after school, a remark that she had accepted with minimal comment.

Choosing to ride his bike the three miles to school, he called Leon and informed him that he would be able to make it to the gravesite. Then he left a message on Pastor Rogers' phone, asking him to "just pray for me today." He himself made it through the school day doing just that.

Never before could he have ever said that he had prayed "without ceasing," but that day he came closer to it than he had ever been.

As soon as school was over for the day, Dylan met up with Leon and Gemma Yee, Hannah's best friend, as they left school.

"Do you want a ride to the cemetery?"Leon asked. "Mom's right over there." He pointed to a silver car.

Seeing that it was a five-seater with three people already inside, Dylan shook his head. "Nah. Not possible; and I already brought my bike, so I'll bike over, if that's okay."

"Yeah, that's fine." Leon said, following Gemma to the car.

Dylan hurried to his bike and took off towards the Crown Hill Cemetery, still praying in his head the whole way.

* * *

An hour later, Dylan was still giddy with relief as he biked through Albany, not really paying any attention to where he was going. He had survived the forty or so minutes at the cemetery. And gotten through his part of it quite well, if he did say so himself. It had been nerve-racking, speaking in front of other people – he couldn't quite think of it as preaching – even if it had been only Gemma and the four Carsons – Doug, Liz, Leon, and Hannah.

"Thank You, Lord!" he called out as he turned onto Champagne Lane.

He was turning off of Doncaster Drive and onto Whispering Pines Road before he realized where he was heading – the church, which by now was very much in sight. He parked his bike beside the church and went inside the main entrance, before finding his way to Pastor Roger's office. He knocked on the half-closed door.

"Come in." Jon beckoned.

Dylan stepped into the office as Jon looked up from his Bible. "Dylan, how are you, son?"

"Wonderful."

"I've been praying for you today."

Dylan grinned. "I know."

Jon gestured to a seat for Dylan and moved to sit in the other one, the same place that he had counseled Adam only a few months previous. "I take it that things went well, then?"

"Yeah, they did." Dylan nodded eagerly, grinning from ear to ear. "I can really do this, Jon. With God's help, of course, but I can survive it."

"Maybe you had better backpedal a little." Jon suggested. "You can do what?"

"Preach."

Jon raised his eyebrows, asking, "And how did you become suddenly so sure of that?"

Dylan took a deep breath, before explaining, "A girl in my school recently miscarried a baby, and she and her brother asked me to say a few words at a small graveside service today. I only left about ten minutes ago, actually, so it's probably awful that I'm happy, but… that was exactly what I needed, and I didn't even know it until I had actually done it."

Jon nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I'm glad that you've made your peace with that, Dylan."

"And me and a couple of other kids came by the mission yesterday and fixed up the mission a little. Got the appliances working, cleaned up the place a little, and painted the sanctuary."

"I thought that I smelled paint in the upstairs near there yesterday."

"Oh, and we came up with a name for the place, too."

Jon grinned at the excitement of the young man before him and raised his eyebrows in inquiry.

"Newton-Crosby Baptist Mission."

"Oh? Why that name? Isn't it a bit unusual?"

"Exactly. After John Newton and Fanny Crosby."

Jon nodded. When he paused for a second, Dylan's smiled faded because he knew what question was coming up next. "And… have you shared any of this with your parents yet?"

"No," Dylan glanced down at his hands. "Not yet."

"But you will soon?" Jon pressed.

Dylan bit the inside of his lip uncertainly. "Eventually." He flinched when Jon sighed at his response. "I just… I need time to get everything on its feet first."

"Do you think that Adam and Victoria wouldn't help you with that?"

"No," Dylan looked up quickly. "I know that they would, it's just… I need to do this without them. To prove to myself that I can handle it, you know?"

Jon nodded, but Dylan could tell that he was still unhappy with the answer. "Do it soon, please, for yourself as much as anyone else. If I know the human conscience, their not knowing is bothering you as much as it's bothering me."

"Yeah." Dylan admitted uncomfortably.

"Hey," Jon knocked his knuckles against the arm of his chair, changing the subject. "I think that you might like to know that I put something down in the mission for you. I thought maybe you could use it, and it's just been rolled up in a corner of my attic."

"What is it?" Dylan asked curiously.

"A big piece of carpet. It was going to go in my living room a long while back, but when Maryanne saw that much red, she decided that she didn't like it, so we got something else. The piece downstairs has never been used, so it's all yours. It's pretty big, so it might be enough to cover the sanctuary."

Dylan gaped. "Are you sure that you want it to be used down there."

"Sure," Jon nodded. "Like I said, I have no use for it."

"Wow, thanks." Dylan said, grinning. "Do you mind if I go check it out?"

"It's yours, so whatever you want."

"Thanks!" Dylan said again, darting out of the office and down to the basement.

Another prayer answered, and this being one that he hadn't even thought to pray yet. He laughed a little with the glee of it all as he skidded to a stop in the sanctuary, which was empty except for a huge roll of red carpet sitting at one edge of the room. He went over and tried to unroll it, but it wasn't going to budge with only him behind it.

Oh well, at least it was here and – like Dylan and the rest of Newton-Crosby – waiting for use in the house of God.


	7. Chapter 7

On his way back home from Newtown-Crosby, Dylan called Tyler and asked him if they could meet up at the mission after school the next day. The sooner they could get the carpet put in, the better, he reasoned. And so the two of them met up the following day and laid the carpet in the sanctuary.

Jade came in while they were working, bearing more things that they could use to fix the place up. So they turned Tuesday evening into a spontaneous workday, getting a lot done. They agreed to do the same thing Wednesday, telling their parents that they were going to go straight to the church from school and that they'd meet them there when they came for church.

"You know?" Jade turned around to look at the sanctuary as she picked up her backpack Wednesday evening and prepared to go upstairs to Sherwood Baptist Church. "This room looks ready for Opening Day."

Tyler nodded. "You're right, it does. What do you think, Dylan?"

They were right, he realized, gripping one of the fifteen folding chairs that they had set out earlier in the day. They could hold a service in this room tomorrow night if they wanted to. He thought about it for a second longer - the bathrooms were ready. The kitchenette and classrooms still needed a little more work, but overall they could start up the mission whenever they wanted.

The idea both terrified and exhilarated him.

"I think it's looking really great." he answered.

After another minute, the three made their way upstairs.

"Dylan," Adam called him over instantly and he was instantly thrilled to see Hannah and Leon standing with his parents.

"Hannah! Hi. It's so nice to see you here. I was hoping that you'd come. And Leon too. Even better."

Hannah smiled uncertainly at him, obviously uncomfortable, and possibly a little awed at all of the people wandering around as they waited for the service to begin. "Hi."

"I was brought here against my will." Leon declared, looking like he was only half joking.

Dylan sighed in mock exasperation. "I told Dad to quit duct taping people to the top of the truck, but why should he listen to me?"

His parents laughed and even the Carson twins smiled.

After the church service, Dylan slipped back down into the Newton-Crosby sanctuary for a few minutes and kneeled in front of one of the chairs in prayer, asking God if it was His will that they open the mission so soon. He raised his head and stood, then wandered through Newton-Crosby, seeing how far the place had come. And he knew the answer.

It was time.

"I thought that I'd find you down here."

Dylan jumped and spun around in one rapid motion, suddenly facing Jon Rodgers. He had been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't heard the other man come down the staircase.

"I apologize if I scared you." Jon looked around. "This place looks really nice. You and your friends have cleaned it up quite well. Do you know when you're going to start holding services here?"

Dylan swallowed with difficulty as his panic abated. "If it's alright, I'd like to tell some kids at school that I'm going to hold a special opening service here tomorrow night."

Jon nodded. "So long as I can come hear you preach."

"Of course you can, if you really want to."

"Tomorrow then."

Dylan took a deep breath. "Tomorrow."

* * *

The next evening, Dylan slipped out of the house under the guise of going for a run, hoping that neither one of his parents cared to notice that he was wearing his backpack. He grabbed his bike instead of running, and made it to Newton-Crosby Baptist Mission in under fifteen minutes. He smiled to see the sign that he, Tyler, and Jade had nailed beside the outdoor entrance earlier that day.  _Newton-Crosby Baptist Mission_ it declared in bold blue letters.

Going inside, he ducked into the room that he had chosen as his office and changed out of his running clothes before heading for the sanctuary where Jon and Tyler was gathered with a few others. Jade came in a minute later with three of her friends.

As he went around greeting everyone and feeling more like a preacher than he ever had before, Dylan took stock of who had showed up.

Besides himself, Jade, Tyler, and Jon, there was Hannah, Leon, and their mother, Liz, with Hannah's best friend, Gemma. The three friends that Jade had brought with her were Lisa, CeCe, and a young man named Derrick Freeman. Tyler had brought a classmate named Ryan. Dylan's friends Jeremy Waters and Billy Reeves came as well.

During the final couple of minutes before the service began, Dylan receded to a distant corner of the sanctuary, fighting something akin to a panic attack.

"If you do half as well as you did at Casey's grave, you'll do fine."

Dylan jumped for the second time in as many days before turning to face Hannah Carson. He tried to look less nervous then he was when he said, "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"But you don't believe me." Hannah decided with an almost wry smile.

He shrugged. "I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to, you're sweating bullets."

Dylan cringed. "Am I that obvious?"

Hannah's answering grin said more than words would have. Her expression became more thoughtful as she asked, "Aren't Christian's supposed to – I don't know – pray or something right about now, when they're worried? Because – I remember from my grandma – she used to say before she died that worrying was, like, a sin, or something." She cocked her head to look at him curiously. "Is that right?"

Dylan smiled softly, feeling a little chastened. "Yeah, it is. Thanks for the reminder, Hannah."

"Anytime, preacher." Hannah replied with a grin.

Just then, Jade caught Dylan's eye and tapped on her watch. Turning to see who he was looking at, Hannah gave Dylan an encouraging smile.

Before finding her seat between Leon and her mother she whispered to him, "You can do it, I've seen you preach, remember?"

"Thanks." With that, Dylan stepped up to the front of the room, since they didn't have anything resembling a pulpit yet.  _Showtime, God. Do me a favor and steal my show._


	8. Chapter 8

Dylan sat cross-legged on his bed the next evening, mulling over an idea that he had gotten earlier in the day when his father and the other men were signing their copies of the Resolution. At the get-together, he had pulled Jade and Tyler aside and discussed it with them, and now he sat with a notebook in his lap and his Bible at his side. The subjects that he wanted to write for weren't necessarily going to be found in the Bible, but it couldn't hurt to look.

He decided that he would tackle the subject of temperance and drugs first, since he knew that it was in the Bible and this was the one that seemed to be a bigger deal for teens then the other subject that he was considering – driving habits.

Resolutions or pledges or something of the like about those two seemed like a good thing for teenagers to have. So he figured that he'd try to write them.

* * *

Sunday morning, he was thrilled to see that Hannah and Leon had come to the church service with Liz once again in tow. They had been at the second service at Newton-Crosby too, on Saturday.

He walked over to them, knocking his shoulder lightly against Hannah's. "Four days in church in one week, huh?"

Hannah grinned. "An all-time record, I guarantee."

"Well, I hope that you don't get burned out it. Hopefully none of you do."

Leon rolled his eyes.

Catching her brother's action, Hannah jabbed him in the ribs before informing Dylan, "He really doesn't mind. It's kind of grown on both of us, I think." She tried to smile as she added, "It's kind of nice to know that "Somebody cares."

Dylan smiled sadly in return as he nodded. "He does care for you – for all of humanity. Very much so."

Hannah just shook her head as her eyes became glassy and she looked away. Leon and Liz slipped away to find seats.

"Are you okay?" Dylan asked her, even though it was painfully obvious that she wasn't.

She nodded once again anyway, taking a deep breath to regain control of her emotions. "Everything is still just really fresh sometimes, you know?"

Dylan agreed, because he really did understand, but he found himself at a loss for words.  _God, give me something to say to her._ "You know, God understands even better than I do. His only child died, too." The words came out of his mouth at the same time as they streaked across his mind.

Hannah's expression pinched with thought as she considered the remark. After a second, she smiled slightly at him. "Thanks, Dylan, good answer."

Dylan smiled and went to find his seat before the service began.  _Thanks, God. Good answer._

* * *

Back at his house later that night, Dylan got a phone call. He snatched up the cellphone, noting that it was Hannah calling, before he answered.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I am not a 'ma'am'," she answered pertly. Her next words took Dylan totally by surprise. "But I am a child of the King."

Dylan sat up straight as an arrow, eyes widening. "Say that again?"

She laughed and he could hear the happiness in her voice as she declared, "The Lord saved me, Dylan, just less than an hour ago."

Dylan jumped up from the couch, whooping loudly. He heard Hannah burst into a fit of giggles as his parents hurried in from where they had been talking down the hall. Finally he had something that he felt he could share with them!

"Son?" Adam asked, already grinning but still looking a little wary at Dylan's uncharacteristic exuberance.

"Is that your mom and dad?" Hannah asked. "Do you mind if I tell them? Could you put me on speakerphone?"

"Sure, yeah. I bet they'll be almost as excited for you as I am."

* * *

Tuesday evening after the service, Dylan could tell that something was bothering Leon. As other people wandered around the mission talking to one another, Leon just sat where he was, staring forward or at his hands; he hadn't moved since the service had ended. Eventually, Dylan made his way over and sat down beside his friend.

He waited for a few seconds before Leon asked hesitantly while still looking at his hands, "This thing that happened to Hannah? Is it going to last?"

"Last how?"

"I don't know, it's just, when it happened – when she was saved – she was, like, crazy happy. And I didn't understand – she's my twin and I can almost always understand her – but I didn't understand this, how she could be so happy – not between Danny and Casey and Dad's alcohol problems – but she was. And I didn't think that it would last. I mean, it was nice and everything, but I figured that it would go away in twenty-four hours or less, but it didn't. It hasn't." He paused before coming to the conclusion, "And it's not really going to, is it?"

"I sincerely hope not." Dylan answered.

"So, this thing that happened, it's really real?"

Dylan nodded. "It is."

"But what is ' _it_ '? It's salvation, I know you've said that, but what does that even mean? And whatever it is…" His voice dropped to a whisper, "Can I have it too?"

"You can; anyone can. You just have to ask the Lord for it, and believe that He'll give it to you."

"That really is all that there is to it?"

Dylan nodded the affirmative. "That really is all that there is to it."

"I want to." Leon admitted, still keeping his gaze locked on his hands.

Dylan shrugged. "Then go ahead and just do it."

"Just do it?"

"Just do it. It's kind of like asking your parent for a gift."

Leon smirked. "My mom or my dad?"

"Your mom, definitely your mom." Leon bowed his head as Dylan continued, "Just… ask believing, and He'll give it to you. He'll save you."

Leon looked up and met Dylan's gaze, smiling like Dylan had never seen him do. "He just did."


	9. Chapter 9

The following Saturday was the day that Dylan planned to present the two pledges that he had written to his rag-tag congregation.

He looked out over the small crowd, noting that the usual people were in attendance – Jade, Tyler, Hannah, Leon, Mrs. Carson, Gemma, and Jon Rodgers – along with about ten other people from either Dylan's, Jade's, or Tyler's school who either came off and on or showed up only this once, curious to see and hear a fifteen year old boy preach.

After he had brought the message, Dylan announced, "There is one more thing that I would like for each of you to carefully consider, especially if you're still a teenager, as I see most of you are. Over the past week, I have done some research and written these two pledges." Dylan held them up for display. "One is on the subject of safe driving habits; I call it 'Emily's Pledge', after my younger sister who died earlier this year in a car crash. The other one is concerning temperance and drug abstinence, which I've named 'The Hollis Pledge,'" Dylan inhaled softly. "after the man who drove into the vehicle that my sister was in while he was under the influence of both drugs and alcohol. I would be more than happy to assist anyone of you who would like to sign either one or both of the pledges, and if you have any further questions once you read the pledges, I'll be glad to answer those too."

He closed the service with a prayer.

About ten minutes after the service had ended, Jade, Leon, and Hannah approached Dylan and asked if they could discuss a couple of ideas that they had with him.

"Sure." Dylan shrugged and led them down the mission hallway, to the opposite end of the building and into his office. Once they had settled he asked cheerfully, "What's up?"

Leon looked at the girls and motioned to Dylan, saying, "Ladies first."

Jade looked to Hannah, so Hannah took that as her cue, and, taking a deep breath, started in. "Jade and I both got the same idea when you presented the pledges just now. You were right in thinking that drugs and such are a big temptation for kids in high school…"

"I know; I go to the same school that you do, remember?"

Hannah nodded, continuing on undeterred. "And a lot of high school kids have bad driving habits, so those were good things to have pledges on." She paused. "But there's another big temptation that you forgot."

Dylan cocked his head to the side. "Oh? What's that?"

"Um…" Hannah blushed. "What about the other kind of abstinence – the kind that's not related to drugs? That's a problem for a lot of kids, a lot of good kids even, those that maybe don't want it to be a problem, but they feel like they're the only ones who feel that way, so they give in to peer pressure anyway. I think that it would be a good thing to have a pledge or something for that, something where kids can see that other kids feel the same way that they do about it." She shrugged. "It's just an idea that Jade and I came up with."

Dylan considered this, sitting on the top of his recently acquired desk with his hand propping his chin up and his legs swinging slightly back and forth. "And it's a good idea, too. I really didn't think about that, even though I probably should have.

Give me a couple of days to pray about it, and then we can talk about it again on Tuesday, if that's okay with you two."

Hannah and Jade both nodded their assent, so Dylan turned to Leon, who then shared his own idea.

"What do you think about me creating a YouTube channel for the mission?" Leon asked. "It's easy to do and I was thinking that once I get that done, I could record some of the messages that you preach – like on my phone or something – and put them on the channel. It might turn out to be a good outreach, along with the fact that it's easy and free. So, perfect for us."

Dylan opened his mouth to agree – since it really was a good idea – but then another thought came to mind, a thought that he voiced aloud without thinking. "What if the wrong person sees me preaching?"

"'The wrong person'?" Leon repeated in confusion.

Behind the Carson twins, Jade sighed angrily and rolled her eyes. Dylan's gaze skittered away from the frustrated teen's and the thought crossed his mind to wonder if it was that same guardedly disapproving look from Nathan that had driven David to Christ at the gun range.

Hannah asked, "Can there ever really be a 'wrong person' when it comes to hearing the Gospel?"

"He means his parents," Jade clarified, frustration clear in everything about her at the moment.

Hannah asked him skeptically, "You still haven't told them yet?"

Dylan shook his head, looking her in the eyes for only a moment before focusing on his hands once again. He hated what he had seen in her eyes – hated himself for giving her, all of them really, a reason to doubt him, and thereby, the Word that he brought to them and the rest of the ragtag Newton-Crosby congregation.

"I just need a little more time." He said softly.

Jade pointed out sharply, "That's what you told Pastor Rodgers weeks ago, Dylan. When are you going to tell them? If you don't soon, I wouldn't be surprised if Pastor Rodgers tells them or tells us that we can't use this place anymore. Or both!" She asked, her tone sharpening increasingly, "Is that what you want?"

"No, of course not!"

Jade reigned in her tone, saying softly, "Then I suggest you tell them before long."

Dylan sighed and nodded. "I know. And I will. It's just, I…"

"Need a little more time. I know.

I just don't want to see everything that we've done here go down the drain because our pastor is a liar."

Dylan flinched.

Hannah spoke up softly, explaining, "Dylan, for a lot of kids, this is the only place that they feel comfortable at that also gives them Biblical truths. And they don't deserve to lose that, they need this place." She whispered, "So do I."

"And me." Leon admitted.

Jade added the closing argument, "We've gone too far to have to turn around now; don't make us go back to having nothing."

Dylan nodded, now too ashamed to look any of them in the eye.

"Promise?" Hannah asked softly.

Another nod. "I'll tell them as soon as I can get the three of us sat down together, when an opportunity presents itself. I promise."

Hannah smiled gratefully, and Dylan managed to return the smile half-heartedly.


	10. Chapter 10

However, Shane's arrest on the following Monday threw even Dylan's best intentions and efforts out the window. Now was not the time to spring something else on his parents, he knew, especially not his father. The week after the arrest, Adam went about doing what he had to do, looking like he had lost his best friend – which, in a sense, he had.

Dylan didn't know what he could do to help him, so he settled for not adding some other big thing to what his dad had to think about.

He decided that he would wait until the dust settled concerning Shane before he told his parents about the mission.

* * *

Just over a week after Shane's arrest, on a Tuesday night, Dylan presented the third pledge to his congregation.

Jade had come up with the idea of christening this one "The Goliath Pledge." Her reasoning was that drugs and sex were two of the main giants that high school kids had to fight. Dylan thought that it might have more to do with her father's partner's own battle with it, but he knew better than to say so to her.

Later that evening, after the service had ended and everyone else had gone home, Dylan stepped over to where he had tacked the three pledges to a bulletin board on the wall and he surveyed the names listed on each piece of paper.

His name had been first on Emily's pledge. Somehow, Leon had managed to get to The Hollis pledge before Dylan, a fact that Dylan secretly loved, seeing as Leon and Hannah's father was a drunk. And that very evening, Jade and Hannah had signed first, side by side on Goliath.

He tilted his head, staring at the signatures of those two girls. For Hannah to sign that pledge at all spoke volumes concerning how far she had come in the past weeks. That the girls had signed side by side instead of one under the other seemed like a promise to each other to help keep the other on the straight and narrow.

He shrugged; maybe he was reading too far into something that wasn't even there. After all, Hannah and Jade were so different in so many ways.

Jade was sharp and temperamental. Hannah was much mellower, more mature even. Especially after everything that had gone on with Casey, along with her salvation. He considered it almost strange that they were as close as they were; he hadn't expected them to become such good friends.

But then… he hadn't expected to become as close to Hannah as he was, either. He grinned as the thought crossed his mind. The term "girlfriend" seemed odd to apply to any girl, but Dylan figured that if he was asked outright about his relationship with Hannah, he would probably use it. He had to admit though; it was a relationship that had snuck up on them while neither one of them had been looking for it.

She had been a big moral support after the almost-argument that they had all had the day that he had presented the first two pledges. She had asked him Monday at their tutoring session if there was something that he wanted to talk about. Apparently she had sensed that something was wrong. She had proved to be a good listening ear, and at the end of their talk, as she was getting ready to leave, Dylan had quietly asked her if she wanted to go out and "grab some burgers or something" before the church service on Tuesday.

"Like on a date?" she had asked, eyes widening a little.

He had stammered out an "I guess so," and she had agreed with a grin. He had showed her to the door, and, once he was sure that she was out of hearing range, he had startled his parents once again with a loud "YES!"

They had peeked around the corner, and when he had surveyed the scene, Adam had mustered up something of a smile and commented with raised eyebrows, "That girl makes you do strange things, son. Have you noticed that?"

Dylan had just grinned. Adam had shaken his head and Victoria had laughed outright.

A week later, he still couldn't help but grin like a fool when he thought of that date.

* * *

The next Sunday was Father's Day, and Dylan knew that his father was nervous over the speech that he was supposed to give that day. Although he couldn't quite bring himself to say so to his parents, Dylan knew how he felt.

Dylan listened with interest as Adam spoke to the father's of the large Sherwood congregation, but he wasn't prepared for it when he heard his father say, suddenly as if he was speaking straight to Dylan, "Who will pray for and bless my children to boldly pursue whatever God calls them to do? I am their father, I will!"

And Dylan knew, now beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Adam would do just that. He snuck a look at his mother, sitting at his side, and he knew that she, too, would support and help him in every way that she could. But first he had to tell them about everything – being called to preach, and starting up and running The Newton-Crosby Mission.

Or maybe… maybe he would just show them.

* * *

Tuesday evening, before he left the house for his habitual "run," – which in this case meant a church service at Newton-Crosby – Dylan stood around the kitchen counter with his unsuspecting parents and after taking a deep breath, requested, "Would you guys mind coming with me somewhere?"

"Both of us?" Victoria asked, looking up from her magazine with mild surprise.

Dylan nodded nervously. "Yeah. If you can both come, that would be really great."

"Don't you usually go for a run in about an hour or so?" Adam asked.

Dylan swallowed. "About that… I haven't actually been running."

"Well," Adam asked. "What have you been doing?"

"That's what I wanted to show you. It's nothing bad, I promise. But it's… it's become really important to a lot of people. Including me. And I really want to share it with you. Please come?"

Seeing his earnest expression, Victoria shut her magazine and hopped off the barstool as Adam nodded and said, "Of course, buddy."

Dylan grinned and took another deep breath. "Alright then. Here we go."


	11. Chapter 11

"The church?" Adam asked with curious confusion as Dylan instructed him to pull the car into the parking lot.

"Yeah, kind of." Dylan answered, butterflies exploding in his stomach.

"What do you mean by 'kind of'?" Victoria asked. Glancing back at him through the rearview mirror.

"Well, actually, what I wanted to show you is kind of the underworld of the church.

Adam raised his eyebrows. "'Underworld,' huh?"

Dylan nodded. "Although some of the kids like to call it the underworld or the catacombs, it's formally known as The Newton-Crosby Baptist Mission."

"The do what?"

Despite himself and his nerves, Dylan grinned at his father. "The Newton-Crosby Baptist Mission. After John Newton and Fanny Crosby. Jade Hayes came up with the name."

"They let a kid name a church?" Victoria asked, sounding surprised.

"As he led them through Sherwood and up to the indoor entrance to the mission, Dylan didn't know whether he should laugh or cry at her comment, so he chose not to respond at all to what had sounded like a rhetorical question anyway. Instead, he opened the door and led his parents down the stairwell.

"Has this place always been here?" Adam asked curiously as he and Victoria surveyed their unfamiliar surroundings.

Dylan shrugged. "I guess so. Until a couple of months ago, though, it was only a basement, kind of in bad shape. It really wasn't used for much of anything. Here," Dylan nodded in the appropriate direction. "The sanctuary is that room over there."

Adam and Victoria wandered into the unimposing, simple room and Dylan followed them, trying all the while to quell his nerves.

When Dylan saw that Adam noticed the trio of pledges on the wall, he shoved his hands in his jeans' pockets and made his way over to stand by his father before he could be called over. Adam looked him in the eye, confusion and maybe a little bit of what Dylan would identify as pain in his stare as he wordlessly asked for an explanation concerning the names of the first two pledges.

"I wrote them." Dylan confessed. "All three of them, actually. I had some help on the last one from Jade and Hannah, though."

Adam looked impressed, turning to look more closely at them. "Really? These look like something a preacher would cook up for the tees in his congregation."

"Yeah, well." Dylan took another deep breath – he had stopped counting how many he had taken since backing out of the driveway at the house – and looked at the floor, scuffing the toe of his shoe against the deep red carpet. "Teenagers and kids make up the majority of this congregation, so that would be the right assumption."

"Maybe the writing just runs in the family." Victoria suggested with a grin as she came over to stand beside her husband.

"Maybe so." Dylan agreed with a small smile in her direction. "Next up: the kitchen is across the hall, if you want to see it

There really isn't physically that much to this place, just so you know. But I do still spend a lot of time here."

"Why?" Victoria asked. "I mean, it seems like a great place – I don't see that your father and I will have any problem with it – so I'm just curious as to why so much time here."

Dylan took another deep breath and answered, eyes averted, "I'll show you in a couple of minutes, if that's alright."

Both of his parents looked at him strangely, but they agreed anyway, seeing his growing discomfort. So Dylan quickly showed them the kitchenette and the classrooms before he stopped before the last door, the only one that was usually even partially closed. Adam noticed first.

"Son, why is your name on the door?"

It was simply a piece of paper that Hannah had taped to the door, but it did the job just the same as any plaque would have.

"Because, I, um,"  _God, help me out here!_ "I'm kind of the pastor here. Of sorts. I'm not ordained." Another deep breath. "But for the past few months, I've felt called to preach. So, a couple of months ago, I started this place with the help of Jon Rodgers, Jade, and Tyler. And then Hannah and Leon just recently got more involved too. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before now – really, really sorry that I didn't."

Seeing their stun-gunned expressions, Dylan suggested, "Why don't we go back to the sanctuary? There's enough seats in there for all of us. I can explain more in there before the service starts."

"'Service'?" Adam repeated.

Dylan nodded. "One service on Tuesday nights and two on Saturdays."

"So… you're going to preach tonight?" Adam asked as they walked back into the sanctuary.

"Yep." Dylan answered with a sigh.

"Well," Adam sat down in a folding chair beside Victoria and across from Dylan. "I can't say that I appreciate being lied to, and I'm still not sure why you didn't just tell your mother and me about all of this, but…" Adam looked around at the mission. "I will say that I'm proud of you for taking this on."

Dylan blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected that last part, not yet anyway. "Thanks." He smiled a little. "That means a lot."

Adam smiled back at him.

"Hey, Dylan!"

All three of the Mitchells jumped in surprise when someone called from down the hallway, having just come in through the outdoor entrance.

"We're in the sanctuary, Leon." Dylan called back.

"We come bearing good equipment, and great girlfriends." Hannah's voice floated to the Mitchells as she came into the sanctuary ahead of her brother.

But Dylan still didn't miss the protective look that flashed through Leon's eyes as he entered the room at Hannah's use of the word "girlfriend." It had recently become apparent that Leon didn't know what to think of Hannah's employ of the label any more than Dylan did.

Then Dylan's attention was caught by the video camera that Hannah held and the camera stand that Leon was toting. "What's that for?"

"Uh, Dylan," Hannah caught his eye worriedly, and only then did Dylan remember that his parents were next to him. "Should we come back later?"

"Nah," Adam answered for his son. "You're fine. I think that we're done talking about it for now." He nodded towards Leon. "Is this your brother?"

"Yes, sir." Leon shifted the stand to one arm and stepped forward to shake Adam's hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

"What's the video stuff for?" Dylan asked. "The YouTube channel that you guys talked me into, I guess?"

"Exactly." Hannah replied.

"Where'd you get it?" Dylan asked, taking the camera off of her hands and examining it.

Leon answered with a smile, "I saw it at a yard sale yesterday for twenty bucks. I told the woman that it was for a church and she gave it to me for a quarter of the price."

"Cool."

"It feels like we're ready to really start going places now, doesn't it?" Leon asked.

"Yeah," Dylan grinned a little over his shoulder, looking back at his parents. "Yeah, it does."


	12. Chapter 12

"So," Dylan made his way over to where Jade and the Carson twins were talking quietly together after the service. "Are you guys happier with me now that you've seen my parents here?"

"Yes." Leon answered.

Jade smiled at him. "Oh, absolutely."

"Hannah?" Dylan asked when she didn't reply.

"I'll tell you later," she answered, slipping away from the group to go talk to Gemma.

Dylan looked after her in confusion before turning to Leon in hopes of getting a reason for her giving him such an odd reply. Her brother only shrugged.

Dylan shook his head to clear his thoughts before he brought up what was on his mind. "Anyway, I had a thought a few minutes ago."

"Those are always dangerous." Leon broke in.

Dylan smirked before continuing on undeterred, " _Anyway_ , what do you think of inviting the Resolution guys and their families to come to church a little earlier than usual tomorrow, and then we can show them this place before the Sherwood service?"

The question had been largely directed at Jade, and she was the one who answered it, admitting, "I was going to suggest it if you didn't."

Dylan smiled, adding a quick nod. "Glad to see that we're all on the same page again."

"That makes two of us." Jade agreed.

Leon declared, "Hannah and I make four."

* * *

"Hey, Dylan, wait up!" Hannah called out to him as he was on his way towards his parents' truck later on.

He stopped in the parking lot, which now contained only two vehicles – the Mitchells' and the Carson's – and waited for her to catch up with him. "Yeah?"

"I never told you what I thought of you telling everybody about the mission."

"No, you didn't." He slipped an arm carefully around her shoulders. "So, what do you think."

She surprised him, popping up on her tiptoes to kiss him quickly on the cheek before whispering in his ear, "I'm very happy."

He smiled down at her. "Me, too." He paused, giving her shoulders a gentle squeeze. "Me, too."

* * *

Wednesday evening, Dylan shifted nervously from foot to foot as he watched the Martinez family pull into the church parking lot. Everyone else was already at the church. He swallowed nervously; there would be no backing out now.

Hannah slid up to his side, the same way that she had on his first time preaching at Newton-Crosby. "Everything is gonna be fine, Dylan, you'll see."

"You hope." Dylan replied, feeling jittery.

"No," Hannah corrected, eyebrows rising slightly. "I pray. Do you?"

Dylan laughed. "You have no idea how much."

"Then as long as you believe that our God answers the prayers of His children, everything will turn out just fine."

"What if His answer is 'I have problems for you to go through'?"

"Then he has problems for us to go through, and we would go through those problems for a reason. Besides, you're just speaking hypothetically, anyway."

"You wanna know what I think?" he asked.

"What do you think?"

"I think that maybe you should've been the preacher instead of me."

Hannah only laughed as Adam and Victoria led the group up to the two teenagers.

"Ready, Dylan?" Jade asked.

Dylan smiled beyond his nervousness. "Absolutely." He turned on his heel, taking Hannah's hand in his as he went towards the church with the others following behind the two of them. "Ladies and gentlemen, please keep your arms and legs inside of the machine at all times. Thank you!"

Hannah looked at him, giving him the sort of look that would have accompanied her slapping her forehead good-naturedly had they been around less people.  _That nervous?_ , she mouthed.

He nodded, the movement almost unnoticeable it was so minute.

 _Breathe,_  she reminded.

 _And pray_ , he added silently.

She smiled at that as they led their group to the outside entrance of the mission and then inside of said mission.

The expected question – "What is this place?" – came from Nathan.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I welcome you to the Newton-Crosby Baptist Mission." Dylan turned and addressed his "tour group" as he led them towards the sanctuary. "It was founded two months ago by Tyler Fuller, Jade Hayes, and Dylan Mitchell, who just so happens to be the pastor."

Startled expressions instantly combined with those of confusion, shock, and downright disbelief and criticism. None of the reactions surprised the young preacher, though.

He continued on, "Recently we've added the Carson twins to our core group, Leon-"

Here Dylan gestured into one of the classrooms, where Leon was currently sitting, working with the recording of the previous night's message on the computer. Leon looked up from his work and smiled, waving a little and saying "hi" before turning his attention back to his task.

"-And, of course," Dylan said, "The lovely pastor's wife of sorts, Hannah."

Hannah blushed as Leon called out to him from the classroom that they had by now advanced past, "I object!"

Dylan grinned, rolled his eyes, and was relieved to see some of the others in the group doing the same, loosening up as well. It looked like this might turn out alright after all.

* * *

But it ended up turning out even better than he had even dreamed it would when, come the Saturday morning service, the entire group returned to attend the service and hear him preach. As he looked out over the crowd that had gathered in the Newton-Crosby Baptist Mission, Dylan couldn't help but wonder if this was what it felt like for a runner when his race, his mission, was complete and he knew that he had done a good job.

But it wasn't even comparable, really, he realized. After all, his mission had only just begun.


End file.
